LIVERPOOL John Lennon Airport (JLA) enjoyed a record April as the late Easter, staggered school holidays and the Royal Wedding bank holiday encouraged people to fly away.

Last month, 490,831 passengers used JLA, more than 40,000 more than the previous best, which was achieved in 2007. It showed an increase of more than 120,000 people on last year, when volcanic ash closed UK airspace for several days.

Robin Tudor, head of PR for Peel Airports, said: “Over the Easter, Royal Wedding and May Bank Holiday period alone, almost 200,000 passengers chose to travel via the airport. It’s a pity a late Easter and a Royal Wedding doesn’t happen every year.

“We knew passenger numbers this April would be significantly higher than last year, having seen over 100,000 passengers affected by the Icelandic volcano in April, 2010; however, this year’s bumper April holiday period saw volumes of passengers surpass even our expectations.”

The period from Good Friday to May Day saw four bank holidays in an 11-day period which encouraged holidaymakers.

Also the late Easter resulted in some local authorities moving the school holidays to earlier in the month, resulting in the airport having four weeks of school holiday traffic.

The bumper month increased its year-to-date total to 1.54m, which is ahead of the previous two years.

The airport’s management is forecasting the improvements to continue, with routes to a range of destinations across Europe expected to increase traffic to its highest annual total since Liverpool’s year as Capital of Culture in 2008.

Then, 5.36m people travelled to or from the airport, but the economic downturn prevented JLA building on the momentum from the city’s year in the spotlight.

Passenger numbers fell to 4.95m the following year, before improving slightly to 5.08m in 2010.

Last June, Peel Group sold 65% of Peel Airports – of which JLA accounts for a large majority – to Canadian group Vancouver Airport Services (VAS) for £110m. VAS has said it is looking to increase passenger numbers and the revenues generated from passengers using the airport and its facilities, which were extended last year.